And So It Goes...

-

 

Yesterday, I posted my 1200th, ahem, post, almost exactly three years ago to the day that I started this blog, which coincided with the first Covid lockdown in March 2020; hence the - now kind of redundant - subtitle, "The Lockdown Tapes". I didn't have any expectations as to how this would develop, if indeed develop is what it's done, which is not exactly: more mutated into the diary I think it currently is, and rightly should be. A space to vent, opinionate about and comment in; but moreover, a daily discipline to focus on for a few minutes to an hour each evening.

The resolution I set myself at the outset, though, was to write at least one post a day, come what may, and no matter how I felt. So far, I've kept to this regime and intend so to continue for as far into the future as I'm around to do the thing, and which my tech will allow. I've covered all manner of ground thus far, from the trivia and minutiae of daily life, to the diverse and more abstruse topics that interest me, and of course, to my incessant ranting about British - and for a while - American, politics; as well, of course the inequities and iniquities of economic 'thinking'.

I've discovered and written about, along the way, much about my heritage and family lineage, confirming what were once simply family fables and suspicions as actuality, and affirming my innate sense of place here in North Wales. I've discovered and written of the wonderful story of my family connection with The White Horse Inn in Clun, and my great-great-uncle Job Graves, whose restless spirit is rumoured to haunt the premises to this day. I've also writ a few pomes, along the way: although they're collectively a bit of a curate's egg.

One thing I covered, two-and-a-half years ago, was The Zettelkasten, a creative method of organizing research data, that I tried implementing for a few months, but have left hanging to date. I think that, in future, I would like to find a way of archiving this blog into a digital Zettelkasten of some sort. After all, the data that comprises this thing is stored as XML, which is easy enough to parse out, and creating the topical linking shouldn't be too difficult: there's probably freebie software out there that will do the job, anyway. Just a thought for the next three years. Keep you posted...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more